Barack DuBois

And those DuBois hits just keep on coming -- Edward J. Blum asks What Barack Obama (and the Democratic Party) Can Learn About Religion From W. E. B. DuBois? Ed's answer: more than you think! Here's a snippet, click on the link for the full piece:

Barack Obama and W. E. B. Du Bois have a lot in common. Both had absent
fathers whom they likened to dreamers; both relied on their mothers; both earned
advanced degrees from Harvard University; both traveled extensively throughout
the world; both ran for United States Senate (Du Bois lost his bid as a labor
candidate from New York in 1950); both elicited questions of racial
authenticity, of whether they could represent African Americans since they had
mixed-ancestries and were highly educated; and both shared a desire to wrestle
religious ideas and language away from conservatives. Perhaps, as Barack Obama
and more broadly the Democratic Party attempt to engage religious issues, it
will behoove them not only to look back to what Du Bois had to say about faith,
but also to create a pantheon of spiritual liberals to revere as part of the
quest to demonstrate historical and religious legitimacy.